Editing Rust Belt (section)

==In popular culture==
The Rust Belt is depicted in various films, television shows, and songs. It is the subject of the popular [[Billy Joel]] song, "[[Allentown (song)|Allentown]]," originally released on ''[[The Nylon Curtain]]'' album in 1982. The song uses Allentown as a metaphor for the resilience of [[working class]] Americans in distressed industrial cities during the [[recession]] of the early 1980s.

Similarly to Billy Joel, [[Bruce Springsteen]] released an album in the mid 1990s titled ''[[The Ghost of Tom Joad]]'' which featured the single "[[Youngstown (song)|Youngstown]]". The lyrics chronicle the beginning of [[Economy of Youngstown, Ohio|industry in the Ohio city]] to its decline throughout the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in the economic and social decline of the city up to the mid 1990s.

The Rust Belt is the setting for [[Philipp Meyer|Philipp Meyer's]] 2009 novel ''[[American Rust]]'' and its 2021 [[American Rust (TV series)|television adaptation]]. A core [[plot device]] of both is the [[Societal collapse|economic, social, and population decline]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philipp Meyer |url=http://www.full-stop.net/2011/02/14/interviews/alex/philipp-meyer/ |access-date=August 8, 2022 |language=en |archive-date=August 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808115206/http://www.full-stop.net/2011/02/14/interviews/alex/philipp-meyer/ |url-status=live }}</ref> facing the fictional Western Pennsylvanian town of Buell, itself brought about by thorough de-industrialization typical of the region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Rust (Official Series Site) Watch on Showtime |url=https://www.sho.com/american-rust |access-date=August 8, 2022 |website=SHO.com |language=en-US |archive-date=August 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821184452/https://www.sho.com/american-rust |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 21st century evolution of this region of the U.S. is also depicted through the fictional town of New Canaan, Ohio, in [[Stephen Markley]]'s 2018 bestseller novel, ''Ohio''. The town is described through both the teenage glamour of high school lens in the early 2000s and the harsh reality lens of what the town became 10 years later.